Preserving Christmas

Do you take hundreds of photos during the Christmas Season like I do?

Well what are you suppose to do with all those photos besides posting them on Facebook?

Do you ever journal about festivities or have post-it-notes galore lining your desk with notes about shopping, parties, menus, and other important Christmas to-do's?

How are you suppose to keep that all organized or better yet, how do you remeber the year that little Sally recieved her Chatty Kathy doll or the year Aunt Lucy gave everyone knit socks?

You can do all this by PRESERVING CHRISTMAS!

Preserving Christmas? That's sounds like a lot of work, not at all. Here are some simple ideas.

* Create a Photo Book with your favorite Christmas pictures.

You can do it completely by scratch with a small scrap book and Holiday inspired papers and embellishments OR cheat a little and purchase a Holiday Scrapbook Kit. You can find them at any craft store and even Target sometimes. Most of the time you can buy them already on clearance. Pick your favorite pictures, print at home or at a store and you are set. The trick is to do right away...believe me there is plenty of time during those cold days in January. I always set a goal to have mine done before Valentine's Day.

You can also do a digital photo book on sites like Shutterfly or Snapfish. This couldn't be easier! Simply upload your photos and either choose for them to arrange the pictures automatically or spend about an hour and do it yourself.

* Photos of your children or family all dressed up or with Santa

How many of you book a photo session at Sears or Picture People to capture that perfect memory? Frame it and then what do you? I buuy a new frame each year, I have a theme of silver frames (Khols is a great place to buy frames, always on sale). I frame each year's photo (I now have 13) in a silver frame and keep them in a Christmas bin. Each year the frames come out and I display my favorites from years past and always try to mix it up from year to year. Either which photos I choose or how I display them around the house.

* Keeping a Christmas Journal

I have been gifted two different journals over the years and have them filled with notes, menus, photos, memories and more from many of our past Christmases. The last few years I have just done the photo books, but plan on making a simple homemade journal similar to the Give Thanks Book I created for Thanksgiving.

There are some great journals out there or even more simple purchase a nice blank journal and add your own personal notes, and tape in a few photos too. Continue to add to it each year!

Here are some photos of entries from two of my journals:

As always, thank you for reading and take a little time to preserve your memories!

Julie